While stay-at-home orders issued in March have caused some adversity for Southeast Texans, there has been one unexpected benefit — a reduction in property crimes.

“We’ve been trying analyze everything since this first kicked off,” Beaumont Police Capt. Chris Schult said. “Personally, I expected the family disturbances to go up and other stuff would go down a little bit. The most common crimes that we see with auto burglaries and other property crimes — it feels like they are down.”

According to the Beaumont Police Department’s uniform crime report, the city saw an 11% drop in property crimes (burglaries, thefts and auto thefts) in March compared to the same time last year. Burglaries went down 20%, thefts went down 9% and auto thefts went down 4%.

While some property crimes were down in February compared to the same time last year, cases dropped dramatically in March. Through February, BPD reported property crime had dropped by 6% with auto thefts up 15% from through the same time in 2019. The city’s numbers for April were not available as of Thursday evening.

Vidor Police Chief Rod Carroll said he has also seen a reduction in property crimes.

“I should knock on wood, but it seems like the opportunities for crimes have gone down,” he said. “People are spending time outside in their yards. It doesn’t take the whole neighborhood. All it takes is one neighbor and the criminals are going to keep on driving or walking… I haven’t had the lawnmowers being stolen. I haven’t had the weed eaters stolen.”

He said people walking outside in their neighborhoods has acted as extra patrols for law enforcement.

“Who knows a neighborhood better than the neighbors? No one,” Carroll said. “Everyone has a cell phone. If someone drives by and people don’t think they belong there, they call in a heartbeat.”

The pandemic and the preventative measures to reduce the virus’ spread appear to have a wide range of effects on crime trends. Miami has gone seven weeks without a homicide for the first time more than 60 years. Beaumont recorded six homicides in a four-week span after not having one for for three months.

Numbers from the Jefferson County Sheriff’s office show an 8% increase property crimes through March, and a spokesperson for the office said the numbers have dropped in April, as well.

“Throughout (Southeast Texas), there are still those prowlers and door-handle pullers that are hitting vehicles,” JCSO Capt. Crystal Holmes said. “We don’t see it as much in the rural areas; but in the cities, it’s still happening.”